Novartis will have biological factory

After six years of intensive discussions, the Novartis Vaccines factory in Brazil should get out of the paper. The company, which plans to shell out $ 470 million in this project, acquired the land in Jaboatão dos Guararapes (PE) and started work, said Joseph Jimenez, President of global pharmaceuticals Switzerland. However, in spite of investment millionaires, the company evaluates the sale of one of its units in Brazil, found the value (see report below).
"At this point, the factory of Pernambuco is completely designed. We began to work and we at Foundation stage to put into practice a plant in State of the art for vaccine production, "said the Chief Executive of the world group. The unit will be built in modules-as if it were a toy lego-coming by containers of the United States.
This unit should produce, at the beginning, components for the manufacture of the vaccine against meningitis b. The works are scheduled to end in the second half of 2014. From there, the company will ask for approval from the national health surveillance agency (Anvisa) to begin the operations, scheduled for the beginning of 2016, with 120 direct jobs.
The Brazil beat countries like Italy and Singapore to host this important biological unit of Swiss pharmaceutical. The project was announced, for the first time, in 2007, during the second term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). The announcement, at the time, generated high expectations, especially in Pernambuco, the State pointed to from the beginning as the seat of this ambitious project.
The delay to exit the role involved environmental and bureaucratic problems. The value found that the initial project would build the factory in the city of Goiana. The land was ceded to Novartis by the Government in the State. To carry out geological studies, however, the company gave up building the unit at that location because it was detected in the herbicide contamination, problem considered common in regions that have hosted sugar cane fields, the case of Goiana. The company then decided to acquire the land in another location, but this process was slow. On this subject, Jimenez reported that "there was a change of location in the meantime [births to Jaboatão dos Guararapes], what caused the delay, and the company had to make new project".
The decision to build a vaccine factory in Brazil indicates that the country has become an important market for biological medicinal products for the company. "We plan vaccine initially, but we have enough room to expand into other products," said the Executive. The long-term idea is to make this unit one of the global biological references to the group.
"Brazil is important to the future of Novartis. Is among the ten countries in size. The middle class has grown a lot. We observed an improvement in quality and health care access, creating new opportunities for the company, "said Jimenez.
Following a trend of global pharmaceutical, Novartis is moving away gradually from the model of "blockbusters" (medicines considered champions of sale) for products for personalized medicine, which includes a small number of patients, whose treatment is considered to be more complex. Jimenez cited as examples, drugs that had its patent expired, cases of Lipitor, Pfizer, and Novartis's Diovan, himself, considered a car-sales chiefs.
Novartis is one of the multinationals that have technology transfer agreements with the federal Government for important treatments. The company has three production development partnership agreements (PDP), under the coordination of the Ministry of health, which provides for transfer of technology to produce public laboratory medicine for treating patients undergoing organ transplants. The company is making the technology transfer of Mycophenolate Sodium and everolimus, used to prevent the rejection of kidney and heart transplant. The everolimus is also used for treating breast cancer in an advanced stage. The other partnership involves transfer of technology for treating meningitis c.
Other two agreements in this regard are under discussion, but the Executive did not give more details. Jimenez considers this type of partnership is important, since it extends the access to treatment. Traditionally, technology transfer agreements, has guaranteed sale of pharmaceutical products to the Government until the public laboratories can manufacture the drugs.